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The Ashes 2013: Nick Compton's England opening spot in question

Should Nick Compton open for England in the Ashes? Nasser, Athers and Bumble have their say...

Last Updated: 27/05/13 1:22pm

That's the question put to David Lloyd, Mike Atherton and Nasser Hussain after England's No 2 made just seven in 84 minutes against New Zealand on day three of the second Test, at Headingley.

The innings continued a disappointing run of form for the Middlesex man, who has scored 54 in six Test innings against the Black Caps since scoring hundreds in Dunedin and Wellington in March.

So should England stick with the 29-year-old, or with back-to-back series against Australia on the horizon is it time to shuffle the top-order?

Here's what our experts think - have your say by filling out the feedback form below or voting in our poll.

Bumble

"I think he's just got to free himself and look to enjoy it and tell himself that he can really enjoy the hard work that he has done to get himself into this situation. In his defence, I'd say that opening the batting in the conditions that we've had has not been easy: the ball's been moving around, there's a bit of dew in the pitches and the Duke cricket ball is a little bit more difficult to play. He's a very, very good player - he's experienced at 29 years of age. My nagging thought is that he's just got two centuries in New Zealand. He's been under-par in these two but I don't think England will change and I don't think they should, but it's not straightforward. If England do make a change, there are lots of different options that are being floated around - Root to go up to No 1, Trott to open, Michael Carberry to come into the team. Psychologists have a part to play and it may be that a sports psychologist gets to work with the lad."

Athers

"The first thing to stress is that Nick Compton is a good player. We're very quick in this country to move between extremes - we see it now with Joe Root. He gets one Test hundred and I read a newspaper article the other day saying 'he's going to be one of the England greats'. Everybody was saying how well Compton did in New Zealand and now they're saying he's a poor player. He's not, clearly. The question really is whether he's one of the best six players in England when that Australia Test match comes around. We don't know if Kevin Pietersen is going to be fit, so if he's not fit England won't make a change. If he is fit and he comes back, will they move Joe Root up? I suspect that they will. Having listened to Alastair Cook in his pre-match press conference, he gave quite an endorsement to Compton but there were a couple of qualifications and I just got the sense in what he said that they are not absolutely in his camp."

Nass

"I wouldn't have picked Nick Compton in the first place. I would have moved Jonathan Trott up to open when Andrew Strauss retired. At that moment I would have been thinking about back-to-back Ashes. Cook and Trott can be a bit dull when they are batting but you can't get past them, as Australia found out at Brisbane. All of England's strength is in middle-order batsmen - you've got the likes of Taylor, Bairstow, Root, Morgan, Pietersen, Bell; you've got a lot of guys who can come in and play well. Now that they have gone with Compton I'm anti leaving him out because of two bad Test matches. We can't go back to the bad old days where if you have two bad games you are out of the Test side and we played a squad of 25 cricketers against Australia. Compton has played 111 first-class games for 12 years to get to that stage in New Zealand where he got back-to-back hundreds and everybody was saying 'here we go, we've got a Test match opener'. Two games later everybody's saying 'get rid of him, get someone else in'. We can't go back to those days. If we do, then it's not because of two bad games - it's because the initial decision to pick him was wrong."

Watch the Ashes live on Sky Sports - starting at 10am on July 10 on Sky Sports 1 HD.